Monsters Review

Alien invasion flick subverts the genre at SXSW.

Do not be fooled by the title. While Monsters features its fair share of creatures over the course of its 97 minute runtime, this is far from your average sci-fi flick. Rather, it's a sweet, small-scale story, set against a backdrop of large-scale alien invasion.

The story starts six years after a NASA probe was sent into space to collect evidence of alien existence. Said probe crashed on re-entry to Earth over Central America, and soon after new life forms began to appear in Mexico. Fearing invasion, much of the country was quarantined, and is now considered the "infected zone."

So unlike most movies of this ilk, Monsters begins after most of the action has ended. Scoot McNairy (In Search of a Midnight Kiss) plays Andrew Kaulder, a photographer who has made a living documenting the brief bouts of carnage that followed the alien arrival. Working in the non-infected area of Mexico, he gets a call from his office requesting he find the boss's daughter Samantha (Whitney Able) and ensure that she gets back to the States safe and sound within 48 hours.

Andrew quickly tracks Samantha down, and while the two don't initially get along, he successfully convinces her to head home with him. However, events soon conspire against the pair, and in spite of their efforts to bypass the alien area by air, rail and sea, they sound find themselves with no option but to enter the infected zone.

And that's where this synopsis ends, for to reveal any more about what happens in Monsters would be to do a disservice to all involved. However, rest assured the story is as involving as it is surprising, subverting genre expectations at every turn to create something utterly unique and original.

Indeed, the only criticism one can aim at the narrative is that at times it's a little slow, with some scenes lasting too long and outstaying their welcome towards the film's end.

McNairy and Able shine, however, creating believable characters who embark on a dangerous journey physically, and a more tender and touching one emotionally. For the most part a two-hander, much of their dialogue is improvised, and it's a testament to the talents of these two actors that it always rings true.

But it's writer-director Gareth Edwards who deserves the most praise. Shooting guerrilla-style on a shoe-string budget, he's crafted a wholly original feature that stays with you long after the credits have rolled. Edwards was also responsible for production design, but it's his special effects work that truly impresses. Created on a laptop over the course of six months, the monsters in question are something to behold -- bioluminescent things of beauty that look like they come from a far more expensive movie.

And it's not just the monsters -- clever effects work is littered throughout the movie, enabling him to tell this most intimate of stories on the largest possible scale. The result is a creature feature unlike any other, and one that has announced the arrival of an exciting new talent in the shape of this young writer-director.